what was that i said......

about the snow disappearing.....we have had so much of the stuff that i have been pretty much house bound for a week......good for the bank balance and finishing off crafting bits but a bit stressful all the same. On Saturday we just managed to pick eldest up from the station as it started in earnest, but we were due to go to a friend in London for her 50th celebration dinner and of course we couldn't make it. I was bitterly disappointed (and a bear with a sore head for the rest of the weekend!)

As you can see we have a camera so I have taken a few snaps of our jolly snowman ......hes 6 days old today and has lost his nose and is sinking but still hanging on. Me thinks it will definitely be a white Christmas here in the small town

the tree is twinkling , candles lit, is that the sherry bottle opening?........ and young un's blanket all finished...and very pretty it looks too. (this is the link to the pattern as so many people have asked about it.....enjoyhttp://www.artoftangle.com/snowflake.htm)

All that's left is to wish you  a very happy Christmas....thanks for the comments and support this year .....and enjoy!

we have lift off.....

Two offers for a university place next year ....hurrah......Christmas has come early here in the small town.
We are all overjoyed, probably out of proportion but I don't care! Friends are telling me it was never going to be a problem, but after last years fiasco I couldn't assume it was in the bag. So she may be on her way to either Sheffield or Southampton.(I favour the north but am keeping it buttoned)

The craft fair came and went, on the day we had our biggest snowfall so the turn out wasn't great........I really enjoyed the experience but didn't sell as much as I'd hoped, but that was true for all the stall holders.
All my scarves went and just one cushion so now I am left with rather a lot of the little babies. ho hum. I think I may do some giveaways in the new year.....I can hardly give them as presents can I? as everyone knows I made them to sell.................and lastly no pictures to adorn the post as my camera has broken and I don't feel able to replace it until the new year, what with Christmas and all.

Am enjoying all your snowy posts but personally am glad its disappeared.

My, how time flies.........

when you are so busy making stuff for a Christmas fair, working , having a birthday, cajoling a prospective uni student, being a friend(or trying) not to mention a wife etcetera, etcetera (as Yul Brynner once said). But hey nothing bad so am not really complaining.
We have at last pressed the button on the ucas application for youngest for next year. This has been causing me oodles of stress and  is what has been preoccupying my mind practically 24/7 . But its done now....in the lap of the gods.......all we need is one little offer.

Of course its even more important now that the coalition has decided  that it is in all our best interests for university fees to be nearly £9k a year, meaning the average student living away from home could incur debt of £50k more or less and this from a bunch of people that in the main received  free higher education. I could rant for ever but to no avail really.....just one little offer please.

On a much more positive note we had a lovely weekend in Bath staying with friends who are renovating a large house to open as a B & B. They are the most generous hosts and despite building deadlines took a couple of days out  and we finally got to see the Roman baths......so much more to see than that main pool and it was a very interesting couple of hours, all moody atmosphere as the light was fading. I love anything about ancient Rome thanks to a very inspiring classics teacher at school. We also saw the wonderful Castle Coomb (we were sure it was really a film set for Harry Potter, no aerials, phone wires and wispy smoke from every chimney!) and Cirencester . Bath is the most wonderful place and if you have never been perhaps I could recommend a little B & B I know!

......and of course I have been beavering away at the stuff for the Christmas fair NEXT week.......have made 10 scarves which I would love to show you but my camera has died. (as these things do near Christmas just hope its not the boiler next have an odd feeling)...........

Lastly I wanted to share this picture with you.....isn't it fabulous ?........this, I am convinced, is the bed in the book Heidi, that the grandfather built and I so craved as a child.... Enjoy x

I've been busy.........

 I know I've neglected my blog and I do miss catching up with all you folk, but it had to be done.....the Christmas craft fair is fast approaching and I'm getting nervous as to how to fill the stall...so I had a really hard push and finished off these cushions, which you've all seen before in their unmade up form but here they are finished.....(testament to that is a very stiff finger and sore wrists!)...one more to go then I'm turning my attention to some scarves and embroidery.

as I've never done this before any ideas about pricing would be helpful.........

day out tomorrow............

had a fantastic time last year and bought some lovely wool and fabric..........extended the budget this year so hope to come home with some interesting goodies.

Also treated myself this week to these gorgeous fabrics. Aren't they fabulous especially the first which if memory serves is by Alexander Henry. Have a great weekend x

France was FAB as always.....

This was our home for the week, a very nice pigeonnaire, part of a much larger beautiful farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Literally five miles down a windy road from the nearest village, a 10 mile trip for your morning croissants!

The silence was deafening you could hear the leaves falling from the trees and the beasts snorting in the woods.....something I've always craved but as a former city girl latterly a small town girl. it could be a wee bit scary if I was on my own (Herb having undertaken the 10 mile trip for the you know what) ...still,I would have  a go at getting used to it!

The pool was huge and gorgeous and we had it all to ourselves, we kept saying how the girls would have loved it.......

We stayed in the Tarn region not too far from Albi which did not disappoint, it has the biggest brick built cathedral in the world!.....loved it

wonderful villages,and it being September there were no hoards of brit's, no crowds, no 'hunt the parking space',we had these amazing places almost to ourselves....my,we are getting old and grumpy.

and finally this melamine plate in the gite inspired this piece of crochet so I was not completely idle.

and had a dabble at cross stitch too.....

All in all a great week, we survived our first holiday a deux....we missed the girls terribly, but on the positive side we could  suit ourselves more than normal and hey its something I will have to get used to.

The house was extremely tidy when we got back......smelt quite badly of a heavy use of oven chips and I suspect our house became the place to stay for the week, but that's OK all safe and well.

Work has been full on and quite stressful since I got back, its the time of year when its always that way, year end, new budgets and of course the coming of 'compulsaries'.....not great.

and finally thanks for the comments re my last post and the big falling out I had with an old friend. I had an extremely frank discussion with her, probably 30 years overdue on my part which felt very liberating. We have spoken since the holiday but have yet to meet up, its cost me some sleepless nights but hopefully our friendship will now be on a better footing.......

la belle france

at last we have a holiday booked..... in the Tarn region.....so so excited, its a pigeonnier with a pool right in the location I wanted to be, as I have a list as long as your arm of places I want to see......don't tell Herb, he's ordered lots of heavy tomes from Amazon so he obviously has a different agenda to me ha ah.....just the two of us, so a bit of a test all round. Eldest and youngest will be home alone, I declined my mothers offer to stay here on their behalf....they owe me.

On the crafting front I have made a few more cushions for the Christmas fair, although that is in jeopardy as the friend I was doing it with has pulled out and I'm not sure I have the confidence to do it by myself. What if etc etc.

On the negative side I think I have today lost the friendship of one of my oldest friends.....35 years we've known each other and gone through many ups and downs, seen each other through divorces and other traumatic times that life has thrown at us..........not sure whether to let it go or try and salvage it......any one had a similar experience?